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The reproductive caste of a mature colony includes a fertile female and male, known as the queen and king.61 The queen of this colony is responsible for egg production for the colony. Unlike in ants, the king mates with her for life.62 In certain species, the abdomen of the queen swells up radically to increase fecundity, a characteristic known as physogastrism.61 Depending on the species, the queen begins producing reproductive winged alates at a certain period of year, and huge swarms emerge from the colony when nuptial flight begins.

A young termite nymph. Nymphs first moult into employees, but others may further moult to become soldiers or alates.

Termites are often compared with the social Hymenoptera (ants and various species of bees and wasps), but their differing evolutionary origins result in major differences in life span. In the eusocial Hymenoptera, the employees are entirely female. Males (drones) are haploid and develop from unfertilised eggs, while females (both workers and the queen) are diploid and develop from fertilised eggs.

Depending on species, both male and female workers may have different roles in a termite colony.63.

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The entire life span of a termite begins with an egg, but is different from that of a bee or ant in that it goes through a developmental process called incomplete metamorphosis, with egg, nymph and adult stages.64 Nymphs resemble small adults, and go through a series of moults as they develop.

The development of nymphs into adults can take months; the time period depends on food availability, temperature, and the general population of this colony. Since nymphs are unable to feed themselves, employees must feed thembut employees also take part in the social life of the colony and have certain other tasks to accomplish such as foraging, building or maintaining the nest or tending to the queen.5367 Pheromones govern the caste system in termite colonies, preventing all but a very few of the termites from becoming fertile queens.68.

Queens of the eusocial termite Reticulitermes speratus are effective at a long lifespan without sacrificing find out here now fecundity. These long-lived queens have a significantly lower level of oxidative damage, including oxidative DNA damage, than workers, soldiers and nymphs.69 The lower degrees of damage appear to be due to increased catalase, an enzyme that protects against oxidative stress.69.

Termite alates only leave the colony when a nuptial flight takes place. Alate males and females pair up together and then land in search of a suitable place for a colony.70 A termite king and queen do not Going Here mate until they find such a place. When they perform they excavate a chamber large enough for both, shut up the entrance and move to mate.70 After mating, the set never go outside and spend the rest of their lives in the nest.

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By way of example, alates in certain species appear during the day in summer while some emerge during the winter.71 The nuptial flight might also begin at dusk, when the alates swarm around regions with lots of lights. The time when nuptial flight begins depends on the environmental conditions, the time of day, humidity, wind speed and precipitation.71 The number of termites in a colony also varies, with the bigger species typically having 1001,000 individuals.

The queen only lays 1020 eggs in the very early stages of the colony, but lays as many as 1,000 per day when the colony is several years old.53 At adulthood, a primary queen has a fantastic capability to lay eggs. In certain species, the mature queen includes a greatly distended abdomen and may produce 40,000 eggs a day.72 Both adult ovaries may possess some 2,000 ovarioles each.73 The abdomen increases the queen's body length to a number of times greater than before mating and reduces her ability to maneuver freely; attendant employees provide assistance. .

The king grows only slightly bigger after initial mating and continues to partner with the queen for life (a termite queen can survive between 30 to 50 years); this is very different from ant colonies, in that a queen teammates once with the male(s) and stores the gametes for lifetime, as the male ants die soon after mating.6267 If a queen is absent, a termite king generates pheromones which encourage the development of replacement termite queens.74 Since the queen and king are monogamous, sperm competition does not happen.75.

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Termites going through incomplete metamorphosis on the path to becoming alates form a subcaste in certain species of termite, functioning as potential supplementary reproductives. These supplementary reproductives only grow into primary reproductives upon the death of a king or queen, or when the primary reproductives are separated out of the colony.6676 Supplementaries have the ability to replace a deceased primary reproductive, and there may also be more than just a single supplementary within a colony.53 Some queens have the ability to switch from sexual reproduction to asexual reproduction.